Virtual machines create a guest operating system that operates over, alongside, or within an operating system of a host electronic device, such as a computer. The use of a virtual machine can provide a user of the host electronic device the capacity to interact with files and systems that are compatible with the virtual machine, but that may be incompatible with the host operating system. The virtual machine can operate as a software emulator, where the virtual machine mimics the functionality of the virtual operating system and provides hardware abstraction, e.g., virtual hardware, to create a simulated hardware environment on the host device. In some configurations, the virtual hardware can simulate hardware of a device remote to the host electronic device.
Companies such as VMware®, Inc., Citrix® Systems, Inc., and Microsoft® Corporation sell virtual machines for use on host devices. The virtual machines of the various companies can operate according to different, incompatible formats with respect to one another. Different virtual machine formats can incorporate different architectures and hosting environments, and can utilize different instruction sets. In addition, companies such as Microsoft® Corporation, Amazon.com®, Inc., and Google® Inc. have created public cloud services that can be accessed through the use of a virtual machine on a host device. Because virtual machines can be incompatible with respect to one another, a user who does not possess a virtual machine corresponding to one virtual machine format or cloud service format may not be capable of accessing data corresponding to another virtual machine or cloud service that does not correspond to the user's virtual machine.